Abstract P6-05-56: Current Status and Focus of Breast Reconstruction Research in China and Abroad-A Bibliometric Study
Authors: Hengyu Ren, Shuang Hao, Jiajian Chen, Zhimin Shao, guangyu liu, A-Yong Cao, Jiong Wu
Journal: Cancer Research (2023)

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to conduct a bibliometric and visual analysis of breast reconstruction related research at China and abroad published in the past five years, to understand the research status and development trend in this field, to discuss the focus of research in different countries and different disciplines, and to provide reference for other researchers. Methods: Relevant literatures about breast reconstruction were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. The VOS viewer 1.6.15 software was used to extract the authors, countries, institutions and keywords to generate network maps of high-yield authors, institutions and high-frequency keywords clustering network. Results: 4,815 documents meeting the requirements were retrieved, which showed an upward trend in the past five years. Regarding the discipline, 838 documents (17.40%) were published by breast surgery and Cancer Surgery, 3308 (68.70%) were published by plastic surgery, and 669 (13.90%) were jointly published by both types of researchers. A total of 161 clinical trials were registered in the US clinical trial registry (ClinicalTrial.gov), of which intervention trials accounted for the highest proportion (107, 66.46%), followed by observational trials (54, 33.54%) and patient registry (4, 2.48%). Regarding country distribution, the United States conducted the largest number of breast reconstruction-related clinical trials (45, 27.95%), followed by China (22, 13.66%), Italy (12, 7.45%), France (11, 6.83%), the Netherlands (9, 5.59%). The top ten institutions contributed 983 articles (20.41%), and the institution with the highest number of publications was MD Anderson Cancer Center (144, 2.99%), followed by Harvard Medical School (139, 2.89%), Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (125, 2.60%), Stanford University (113, 2.35%) and University of Michigan (102, 2.12%). The author with the largest number of documents was Bernard T. Lee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), with 56 papers and 540 citations. The most cited author was Andrea L. Pusic of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with 48 papers and 1,332 citations. Chinese authors published 310 documents, accounting for 6.44%. There were differences in the disciplines of the main authors between China and abroad. In China, authors from breast surgery published a larger proportion of documents (138, 44.52%), while the number of documents published by authors of plastic surgery (129, 44.52%) and the joint publication of both types of authors (43, 13.87%) was relatively small. However, foreign documents mainly came from authors of plastic surgery (74.74%). There were more cooperative groups (155) formed by major foreign authors, and joint publishing between groups was more frequent; while Chinese author formed only 16 cooperative groups with less cooperation. Keyword cluster analysis showed that top five keywords were flap, implant, breast cancer, immediate breast reconstruction, tissue. In breast surgery publications, top five keywords were breast cancer, breast reconstruction, complications, implant, immediate breast reconstruction, while in plastic surgery publications top five keywords were flap, implant, tissue, breast cancer, infection. Authors from breast surgery focus more on oncology-related issues in breast reconstruction, while in plastic surgery, more attentions were paid on autologous tissue reconstruction. Conclusion: Breast reconstruction had gradually attracted the attention of Chinese and foreign researchers. Compared with foreign countries, there were problems such as lack of high-quality research and less cooperative research in China. There were differences in the research focus of breast reconstruction between China and abroad, which is mainly related to the differences in the disciplines of researchers. Citation Format: Hengyu Ren, Shuang Hao, Jiajian Chen, Zhimin Shao, guangyu liu, A-Yong Cao, Jiong Wu. Current Status and Focus of Breast Reconstruction Research in China and Abroad-A Bibliometric Study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-05-56.